The Marilyn method explained
Introduction
Back in 2012, Serge Gorodish published the "Marilyn method", a method to remember the meaning, pronunciation and components of Chinese characters. He explained it at length in his original blog post, so check out his blog if you're interested in the details.
Let us explore how this method works using the most difficult Chinese character: 的.
的 is the most common Chinese character, but also the most complicated one to remember. Why is it so difficult? Because I am going to introduce you to a lot of concepts to make remembering Chinese characters easier. This requires quite some effort upfront, but it pays out in the long run. Once you have finished this tutorial, each subsequent Chinese character will be easier to remember than the one before.
Translations for 的
的 is more or less equivalent to the possessive 's:
This is why 的 is the most common Chinese character. It's used to indicate a possessive relationship between people or things. For example:
- Child 的 bicycle = the child's bicycle
- I / me 的 computer = my computer
- Car 的 color = the car's color
As a side note, there are also other translations for 的. We can safely ignore those until much later. You can check them out by clicking on "的" in the translation above if you want to have a look now.
Part 1: how to remember the pronunciation "de5" of 的
Let's look at how to remember the pronunciation "de5" before we learn how to remember its components.
Each pinyin syllable is split into two components: the initial and the final, in this case: de5 = d + e5. While "de5" is a pinyin syllable, let's call "d" and "e5" the "Marilyns" in recognition of the original name of the method. In the mnemonics, Marilyn initials are represented by personas, while Marilyn finals are represented by locations. Additionally, since the finals carry the tone number, let's identify these by specific sub-locations:
- First tone: in front of the location
- Second tone: in the location's kitchen
- Third tone: in the location's living room
- Fourth tone: in the location's bathroom
- Fifth tone: on the location's roof
Let's use Don Quixote for "d" and the elevator's, um, roof for "e5".
Yes, this is complicated and requires some upfront effort to learn the system. But it's worth it: there are 520 Chinese characters with a pronunciation starting with "d", and 32 Chinese characters with a pronunciation ending with "e5". To remember these characters, we're now able to build mnemonics with Don Quixote, and mnemonics which are located on the elevator's roof. This helps immensely with remembering the pronunciation of these Chinese characters.
For example, here are the characters starting with "d":
And here are the characters ending on "e5":
Two Marilyns form a Pinyin syllable
As in the example of Pinyin "de5" = Marilyn "d" + Marilyn "e5", every Pinyin syllable can be split up into two Marilyns. There are five groups of Marilyns:
- Pinyin starting with "i" sound (similar to English "ee")
- Pinyin starting with "u"
- Pinyin starting with "ü"
- Pinyin starting without vowel
- The Pinyin ending (or "final") is represented by a location as described above.
You can see the full table here:
The mnemonic personas for each group are as follows.
Marilyn initials with "i" are represented by women
| bi: | Brunhilde, shield maiden and valkyrie |
| di: | Dorothy Gale from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" |
| ji: | Joan of Arc, patron saint of France |
| li: | Li Qingzhao, writer and poet of the Song Dynasty |
| mi: | Marilyn Monroe, American actress, model and singer |
| ni: | Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt Nefertiti |
| pi: | Pocahontas, famous Native American from the Powhatan people |
| qi: | The Queen of Hearts, as on the playing cards |
| ti: | Mother Teresa, Albanian-Indian Catholic nun |
| xi: | Marie Curie, Polish-French scientist working with "X"-rays |
| y: | Maud Younger, American suffragist, feminist, and labor activist |
Marilyn initials with "u" are represented by animals
| bu: | Bruno Bear |
| chu: | Chantal Chicken |
| cu: | Kitty Cat |
| du: | Doggy Dog |
| fu: | Frieda Fox |
| gu: | Gitta Giraffe |
| hu: | Helga Horse |
| ku: | Karl Koala |
| lu: | Lenny Lemur |
| mu: | Malte Monkey |
| nu: | Nelson Newt |
| pu: | Petra Penguin |
| ru: | Rachel Rhinoceros |
| shu: | Sheldon Shrimp |
| su: | Susan Saint Bernard |
| tu: | Tommy Turtle |
| w: | Willy Walrus |
| zhu: | Julian Giant Squid |
| zu: | Zapatista Zebra |
Marilyn initials with "ü" are represented by deities or mythical figures
| ju: | Zeus |
| lü: | Loki |
| nü: | Neptune |
| qu: | Cupid ("Cu" in "Cupid" sounds like "Q") |
| xu: | Xu Xian, who fell in love with a white snake demon |
| yu: | Yu the Great, who tamed the floods |
Marilyn initials without vowel are represented by men
| b: | Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies |
| c: | King Wu of Chu |
| ch: | Charlie Chaplin, famous actor |
| d: | Don Quixote, knight-errant |
| f: | Frankenstein's monster, monster |
| g: | Guy Fawkes, member of the group around the Gunpowder Plot |
| h: | Hamlet, Prince of Denmark |
| k: | Karl Marx, philosopher, economist, revolutionary socialist |
| l: | Sir Lancelot, knight of the Round Table |
| m: | Mahatma Gandhi, Indian independence activist |
| n: | Napoleon, military leader and emperor of France |
| p: | Pinocchio, wooden puppet |
| r: | Robinson Crusoe, castaway |
| s: | Socrates, Greek philosopher |
| sh: | Sherlock Holmes, detective |
| t: | Tecumseh, Native American leader of the Shawnee |
| z: | Zorro, masked vigilante |
| zh: | James II of England |
Marilyn finals are represented by locations
| in front... | in the kitchen... | in the living room... | in the bathroom... | on the roof... | ...of the |
| a1 | a2 | a3 | a4 | a5 | Ashram |
| ai1 | ai2 | ai3 | ai4 | - | Airplane |
| an1 | an2 | an3 | an4 | an5 | Anthill |
| ang1 | ang2 | ang3 | ang4 | - | Anglepod |
| ao1 | ao2 | ao3 | ao4 | - | Aorta |
| e1 | e2 | e3 | e4 | e5 | Elevator |
| ei1 | ei2 | ei3 | ei4 | ei5 | Eiffel tower |
| (e)n1 | (e)n2 | (e)n3 | (e)n4 | (e)n5 | Encampment |
| (e)ng1 | (e)ng2 | (e)ng3 | (e)ng4 | - | Engine |
| o1 | o2 | o3 | o4 | o5 | Observatory |
| ou1 | ou2 | ou3 | ou4 | ou5 | Outhouse |
The special symbol "Ø"
There are cases when a Marilyn can represent a Pinyin syllable on it's own, without the need of a complementing initial or final Marilyn. In this case, the missing other symbol is represented by "Ø". The mnemonics are:
- When there is no Pinyin initial, Ø is represented by Albert Einstein.
- When there is no Pinyin final, Ø is represented by the space station.
This sounds very abstract, so I recommend to take a look at the Pinyin index to see how this works, specifically the last column in each table and the very last row in the very last table:
The one last Pinyin syllable to complete the picture is "er". It is conveniently represented by combining "Ø" as initial and "Ø" + tone as final (as a convention set up by the inventor of the Marilyn method).
Part 2: breaking 的 up into its components
Now that we've covered the pronunciation, let's look at the components.
As you can see, our example character 的 consist of two component characters:
Sherlock Holmes (sh) feeds an elephant (勹) medicine in the aorta's kitchen (ao2). The medicine looks like a petal leaf (丶), and Sherlock Holmes uses a small silver spoon (勺) to feed it to the elephant.
Fortunately, someone has already assigned "mnemonic symbols" for those two characters. Mnemonic symbols are specific objects that represent their characters in the mnemonics of compound characters, just as the spoon represents 勺 (spoon) and the white flag represents 白 (white). It's obvious for the spoon, but the white flag is a very good example: it translates a somewhat abstract concept (a color) into a specific thing which can act as a reference in our mnemonic. Click on the characters in the translation boxes on the left hand side to see how their mnemonic symbols are used in mnemonics of other characters.
If 的 was used as a component in many other characters, we would also define a mnemonic symbol for this character: a very specific object which represents the meaning of 的 in the mnemonics of the compound characters which use 的 as a component. However, 的 is only used as a component in two rather obscure characters you probably will not bother to learn. Additionally, the meaning of 的 is extremely abstract, which makes it very difficult to distill into a specific object to be used as mnemonic symbol. Finally as 的 is the most common character, you'll learn its meaning through exposure automatically, so a mnemonic symbol doesn't help here either. Instead, we'll be satisfied with a mnemonic which contains the pronunciation and the elements of 的.
And that's how the Marilyn method works.
Conclusion
I've spent more than a day writing this page, and you'll need more than a day to learn the Marilyn method if you decide to do so. Is it worth the effort?
Personally, I'm absolutely convinced that it is worth the effort. Here are some of the advantages that I appreciate:
- It's fun! Due to the constraints of the combination of mnemonic symbols, personas, and location, the resulting stories are often ridiculous and cringy, which is perfect for forming a strong memory.
- Mnemonics help a lot to distinguish very similar characters. Two Chinese characters which differ in just a tiny dot are easily confused without mnemonics, but with mnemonics it's almost as different as night and day.
- On the other hand, I dislike rote learning - which would be the alternative.
If you've seen any of the mnemonic comics on this site and they raised any emotion with you at all - be it joy, surprise, disgust, cringe, awe, annoyance, or even anger - you will remember the comic. If you can remember a comic, you can remember a Chinese character, if you know the key to the mnemonic system.